The Gen X/Z Exchange
You might be wondering why you aren’t happier, where your career is going, or feeling adrift without a clear sense of direction. You’re asking, “How do I figure out what I’m even supposed to be doing?”
If you feel that familiar knot of confusion, dissatisfaction, or just plain stuckness, you've just found your kindred spirits.
This is The Gen X/Z Exchange. Where a Gen X dad and his Gen Z daughter bridge the generational divide to tackle modern life’s biggest headaches.
These aren't just your problems, they're the unspoken struggles of an entire generation - or two!
You're not alone in battling the quiet anxieties of a life that feels off-kilter. Happiness can be hard to find. Perhaps concerns about your mental and physical wellbeing are always bubbling away. Your most important relationships might feel strained, or the relentless demands of your career and finances are leaving you exhausted. These are the universal whispers that, surprisingly, span generations. We can help you untangle all this.
Chris has navigated layoffs, career pivots and found happiness after the infamous midlife slump, while Lily is figuring out her career after changing her degree path and reflecting on her early choices in the world of work. Our different generational viewpoints bring new ideas to tackling the big issues we’re both grappling with.
We chat about all this with honesty, realism and the openness a father-daughter relationship brings.
Our candid conversations will help you realise that you’re not alone in feeling this way too. You’ll gain fresh perspectives, practical insights, and the comforting realisation that many of your worries are universal – and solvable.
We’ll get to the heart of your frustrations, offering solutions we figure out together that you won't find anywhere else.
Hit follow and join us.
The Gen X/Z Exchange
Should social media be banned for under-16s? Phones, schools & the trust gap with Amit Singh Kalley
Should social media be banned for under-16s in the UK - and what can we learn from Australia? Do phone-free schools actually work, or do they just push problems underground?
In this episode, we’re joined by Amit Singh Kalley - leading commentator on this topic and the creator of the viral Periodic Table of Emojis. Amit helps us explore one of the most urgent debates facing parents, schools, and policymakers.
Amit shares how he keeps up with the fast-changing language of teens, and why adults still underestimate the pressure young people face online. Drawing on his experience as a Deputy Headteacher who banned phones at his school, he unpacks what actually works - and what doesn't.
You’ll learn:
- The four questions Amit believes parents should ask their children every day
- What phone-free schools can achieve
- How to rebuild trust when phones have created a wall between parents and children
We look at some of the research in Jonathan Haidt’s book ‘The Anxious Generation’ and look at the very real risks like grooming and sextortion. We discuss the peer pressure between parents as well as teens, whether gaming platforms should be included in a ban, and how Gen Z may one day look back on being handed smartphones so young.
Listen in and you’ll discover what good conversations about social media actually sound like - and how parents and teens can walk the digital path together, instead of pulling in opposite directions.
Hit play now and join the conversation we can’t afford to avoid.
How to contact Amit:
https://forworkingparents.com/
https://www.instagram.com/forworkingparents/
https://www.tiktok.com/@forworkingparents
https://www.facebook.com/forworkingparents
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitsinghkalley
1.00 Intro to Amit
2.05 The idea for the Periodic Table of Emojis
3.40 Keeping up-to-date with how teens communicate
5.14 What are adults still not getting about social media?
7.35 The wall built between parents and children and how to break it down
8.48 The 4 questions to ask your children every day about their online experience
11.07 ‘The Anxious Generation’ and the accidental phone-based childhood
12.12 Amit’s experience of banning phones at school and the results
14.37 Lily’s experience of having phones in school
17.04 The language of the social media ban
18.20 How Gen Z will look back on being given phones & social media
19.35 The dangers of access for young people - grooming and sextortion
23.55 Can we hold the social media companies to account?
28.14 Would a ban work?
30.52 Reports on the changes in Australia so far
32.22 How it could be implemented in the UK and will we do it?
37.45 How to have a good conversation about social media between parents and teens
41.14 Should we ban gaming platforms too?
43.49 How teens might react to losing social media access, how to make them more aware and how to involve them in the discussion
46.50 How to connect with Amit
Send us a voice message on Speakpipe!
https://www.speakpipe.com/thegenxzexchange
Connect with us:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisperkins172/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-perkins-8446a82bb/
